Sneak peek: KeyShot 8

1 min

Luxion has posted a teaser for KeyShot 8, the next major update to its rendering and technical animation software, showing off its new volumetric rendering capabilities, plus support for cutaways and displacement.

The release is now in closed beta, and is available to pre-order.

Due in KeyShot 8: volumetrics, cutaways and displacement mapping
The teaser consists solely of nice images that have been rendered in KeyShot 8, with no supporting information, but it’s no secret that Luxion has been working on support for volumetric shading.

The video shows a range of volumetric effects, including light beams, god rays, smoke and a spongy material that looks reminiscent of the volumetric primitive in OctaneRender.

According to the online documentation – still very much a work in progress at the time of posting – the update will add “Scattering Media” with the “ability to control density with textures and .vdb files”.

Other new features shown in the video include the option to assign a stencil texture to a spotlight, support for cutaway renders, and multi-layer optics for coated glass.

Users of the Pro edition of the software also get support for displacement mapping and new geometry shaders for flakes and bubbles within materials.

Not shown in the video: KeyShot Cloud integrated within the UI
According to the online documentation, KeyShot 8 will also reintegrate cloud rendering service KeyShot Cloud as a dockable window directly inside the user interface.

There are also a number of workflow changes, plus improvements to the Configurator system in the Pro edition and – also only in the Pro edition – support for exporting models in .glb and .gltf format.

Pricing and availability
According to Luxion’s blog post, KeyShot 8 is now in closed beta, although if the company follows its previous schedule, that may mean it’s still several months away from release.

Anyone buying the current version, KeyShot 7.3, will get a free update when version 8 ships.

KeyShot 7.3 is available for 64-bit Windows 7+ and Mac OS X 10.8+. It comes with integration plugins for a range of DCC and CAD tools, including 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Maya and ZBrush.

A new licence of the base HD edition costs $995; the Pro edition costs $1,995. An Enterprise licence, which includes the KeyShotXR and network rendering add-ons, costs $3,995. See a comparison table here.